Jaipur: The Rajasthan government will provide RO (reverse osmosis)purified drinking water to rural households this summer at 10 paisa per liter, an official said Friday.

The state government will set up 1,000 RO plants under a scheme to provide clean drinking water to the rural areas. The villages where water has higher level of fluoride content will be given priority in the first phase, the official said.

“Under the scheme, we plan to supply at least 40 liters of drinking water purified with the RO technology, to each household in surrounding villages where the RO plants will be set up,” said a senior official of the public health and engineering department.

The scheme was launched when Ashok Gehlot was the state chief minister.

“We are trying to make these RO plants functional from this summer. Water-borne diseases during the season, are a cause of concern for the authorities,” said the official.

“The state government will install the RO plant with a capacity of filtering 500 liters of water every hour in the rural areas, which have population of about 1,000 people. The areas, which have more population will have RO plants accordingly,” he said.

In the first phase, the state government will set up 360 plants in Jodhpur, 150 plants in Ajmer, 300 plants in Bharatpur, 30 each in Bikaner and Kota divisions, 100 in Jaipur and 40 plants in Udaipur division, the official said.